Current and neutron yield scaling of fast high voltage plasma focus

Decker, G.; Flemming, L.; Kaeppeler, H. J.; Oppenlander, T; Pross, G.; Schilling, Peter; Schmidt, H.; Shakhatre, M.; Trunk, Maximilian

doi:10.1088/0032-1028/22/3/003

Cited by 37 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…We need to say right at the beginning that this I pinch limitation effect is not the same 4 as the I max -related mechanism proposed by Nukulin and Polukhin [2] to explain an observed neutron saturation effect. In [2] it is postulated that in large plasma focus devices the peak total discharge current I peak (which they denote as I max ) hardly increases with increase in storage energy through increase in bank capacitance C o .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…Difficulties in the interpretation of experimental data ranging across big and small plasma focus devices include the assignment of the representative neutron yield Y n for any specific machine and the assignment of the value of I pinch . In a few larger machines attempts were made to measure I pinch using magnetic probes placed near the pinch region [3,4,9], with uncertainties of 20%. Moreover the probes would have affected the pinching processes.…”

Section: Distinguishing the I Total Waveform From The I P Waveformmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Numerical experiments on plasma focus pinch current limitation

Lee

Lee²,

Saw

et al. 2008

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

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Contrary to the general expectation that performance of a plasma focus would progressively improve with progressive reduction of its static inductance L o , a recent paper suggests that there is in fact an optimum L o below which although the peak total current increases progressively the pinch current and consequently the neutron yield of that plasma focus would not increase, but instead decreases. This paper describes the numerical experiments and results that led to this conclusion.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Distinguishing the I Total Waveform From The I P Waveformmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical experiments on plasma focus pinch current limitation

Lee

Lee²,

Saw

et al. 2008

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

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“…1,2 This is despite the fact that yields [3][4][5] should more consistently be scaled to focus pinch current I pinch , since it is I pinch which directly powers the emission processes. The peak value I peak of this trace is commonly taken as a measure of the drive efficacy and is often used to scale the yield performance of the plasma focus.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Computing plasma focus pinch current from total current measurement

Lee

Saw

Rawat

et al. 2008

Applied Physics Letters

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The total current I total waveform in a plasma focus discharge is the most commonly measured quantity, contrasting with the difficult measurement of I pinch . However, yield laws should be scaled to focus pinch current I pinch rather than the peak I total . This paper describes how I pinch may be computed from the I total trace by fitting a computed current trace to the measured current trace using the Lee model. The method is applied to an experiment in which both the I total trace and the plasma sheath current trace were measured. The result shows good agreement between the values of computed and measured I pinch .

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“…This plasma focus, when optimally designed for the production of neutrons, is expected to deliver more than 10 4 neutrons per shot as is suggested by various scaling laws that had evolved and had been presented by various plasma focus research scientists. 11,[16][17][18] The repeatability of strong di / dt shots is also satisfactory. A maximum of eight good shots ͑with strong dI / dt dip͒ are observed in ten sequential shots taken nearly after 3-4 min.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Low voltage operation of plasma focus

Shukla¹,

Sharma²,

Banerjee³

et al. 2010

Review of Scientific Instruments

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Plasma foci of compact sizes and operating with low energies (from tens of joules to few hundred joules) have found application in recent years and have attracted plasma-physics scientists and engineers for research in this direction. We are presenting a low energy and miniature plasma focus which operates from a capacitor bank of 8.4 μF capacity, charged at 4.2–4.3 kV and delivering approximately 52 kA peak current at approximately 60 nH calculated circuit inductance. The total circuit inductance includes the plasma focus inductance. The reported plasma focus operates at the lowest voltage among all reported plasma foci so far. Moreover the cost of capacitor bank used for plasma focus is nearly 20 U.S. dollars making it very cheap. At low voltage operation of plasma focus, the initial breakdown mechanism becomes important for operation of plasma focus. The quartz glass tube is used as insulator and breakdown initiation is done on its surface. The total energy of the plasma focus is approximately 75 J. The plasma focus system is made compact and the switching of capacitor bank energy is done by manual operating switch. The focus is operated with hydrogen and deuterium filled at 1–2 mbar.

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Current and neutron yield scaling of fast high voltage plasma focus

Cited by 37 publications

References 4 publications

Numerical experiments on plasma focus pinch current limitation

Numerical experiments on plasma focus pinch current limitation

Computing plasma focus pinch current from total current measurement

Low voltage operation of plasma focus

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